Happy New Year and a Vortex-sized thank you for allowing us to welcome 2025 in one piece! We're extra grateful for your support of Wave 104, especially with it landing late in the holiday season. Hopefully as each package arrives a little extra Santa vibe will accompany it.
The Dark Vortex concept is yet another project on the list that's been quietly simmering for a number of years, first taking root when John Kent of Toyfinity and I were discussing the early development of his third robotic figure, then called the Zetonian. From the onset, the goal was for this new design to have multiple core forms, serving each of our ongoing separate (yet still connected) story narratives. Those primary forms were the Zetonian and the Mechabon.
During the process of creating the actual hand sculpted/hand machined prototypes with the great Ron Daley, we also started hiding other sub-form "tributes" within the parts, a number of which have still yet to be realized with full production runs. That being said, the eventual "Sincromillian" homage was maybe the one that John and I wanted to see come to fruition the most. One secret Max to follow in the wake of another very important Maxx.
Homages can be tricky to navigate just right, for a number of reasons. The Dark Vortex wave leans heavily into the somewhat overlooked property that inspired its creation, intending to serve as a loving tribute to the incredible creatives who brought the original film to life. I still watch it on the regular and consider myself incredibly lucky to have actually seen it in the theatres when it first rolled out.
A special omega thank you goes out to Dillon and Sen! Dillon generated yet another outstanding series of illustrations for the latest wave, capping off 2024 with more completely original Glyos-centric comic art than we've seen in literally years. Running parallel in creativity, Sen drafted one exceptional pinup after another, imbuing even older characters with cinematic life and iconic compositions. The deep personal gratitude I feel towards these two incredible artists can't properly be put into words.
2024 saw a multitude of brand-new Glyos-based projects come to life, from resident superhuman Marcus' long awaited and absolutely amazing new Bit Figs: Dreadvalken series, to Jesse D's first release of his status quo smashing Sea of Daggers collection, followed by Rocom's incredible Mighty Maniax world expanding Dark Earth project (a rare KS campaign both run and delivered in the same year)!
Our brother Pj surprised everybody with his second independently funded full production figure, the Velgerian, flipping things creatively upside down in the best way possible. Cappy continued his awesome partnership with Pat as they expanded their connected worlds with more Mischiever action as they unleashed the completely new Draga mold and even more fantastic accessory kit action!
Further proving his dedication to the format, Cappy also partnered with Sam of Angry Hedgehog Toys to activate the astonishing robotic Colossi of Chaos range of figures. Toyfinity then drove another surprise release into the spotlight with the emergence of the wicked Mangloskull, "fleshing" out an already sinister Manglors lineup. It was a good year to be into this stuff.
As of this writing, all orders placed since the launch have gone out. Processing, packing and shipping took a little longer than usual due to the holiday crossover, but Michelle and I did our best to keep things moving and still attend to the festivities. Turnaround will pick up the pace for our next wave that's scheduled to arrive in mid-February.
Thank you again for supporting and being part of this ongoing experiment, especially in these increasingly unpredictable times.
The things we make aren't essential items in the grand scheme of things, not even remotely close, but know that they are each born from a true love of the hobby we all share together, even after all these years.
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